Man loses 260 kilograms in single year
(Agencies/China Daily)
Updated: 2005-06-28 05:59

VALENTINE, in South Dakota of the United States: He still is a mound of a man, but his blue eyes widen with delight as he presses his chest with his fingertips, smiles mischievously and makes the grand announcement: He can feel his ribs. To Patrick Deuel, this small moment is huge. Headline huge. Man Can Feel Ribs A First in 25 Years.

Patrick Deuel, 42, and his wife, Edith, enjoy a Valentine's Day walk near their home in Valentine, Neb., in this February 14, 2005 file photo. [AP]

One year ago, 42-year-old Deuel weighed 487 kilograms. He was so enormous that his bedroom wall had to be cut out to extract him from his home. Then, he was rushed to a South Dakota hospital in an ambulance with extra-wide doors and a ramp-and-winch system that had to be dispatched from Denver.

One man. More than a half-ton. Mind-bogglingly large.

So, too, were the grim realities of Deuel's life. He had not left his bedroom in about seven months. He had barely been outside in seven years. He could not sit up. He could not roll over by himself. He had heart trouble and diabetes and needed oxygen.

Patrick Deuel was dying. A photo taken last June shows a pneumatic-like Deuel sprawled sly on his stomach looking like an inflated balloon.

Now 12 months after being hospitalized for gastric bypass surgery, Deuel sits on a love seat that is propped up on cement blocks. He still looks like a plus-sized Buddha. But he is less than half the man he used to be and that, his doctor says, is amazing progress.

The patient concurs.

"I am used to looking in the mirror and seeing the Michelin man," he says. "All of a sudden... I look a little more like a human being and I say, 'Ooooh, my God, where did he come from?'"

Deuel does a quick inventory of his shrinking, yet still massive body: He touches his ribs. He stretches his fingers like fans to see bones and tendon.

But thrill No 1 is the magic number on the scale: 226.5 kilograms.

He pumps a fleshy arm in triumph. He had not been south of 500 in two decades.

Deuel now goes out almost every day, walks a bit, exercises and thinks about all the things he hopes to do someday.

He already has plans for the future: He'd like to go fishing, attend a football game, and yes, drive to McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin. "Life," he says, "is infinitely better."

(China Daily 06/28/2005 page1)

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